Читать книгу Synapse - Antjie Krog - Страница 12

the bushman

there’s a commotion in the yard the bakkie roars

Petrus gives chase on horseback

a bushman’s been trapped cutting a sheep’s

throat behind the bluegums

a little man with peppercorn hair

is locked up in the flour store

now the yard is crawling with bushman stories

including the one about Paul Delport

shot by a bushman while he was hunting at Turksvykop

he died afterwards from the poison

Oom must sort him out yourself with the stirrup-belt

the young constable tells Pa

it’s terrible for a bushman to be in a prison

they’re too wild to rehabilitate

everyone is shooed away from the yard

it’s quiet in the mulberry tree

the door is closed behind Pa and Hendrik

my ears are paralysed in the tree

a scuffle dull thuds on cement orders

finally flesh lashes and a cry

later in the open doorway Pa pulls his shirt straight

Hendrik has the bushman by the neck

get away from here Pa says don’t set

foot on my farm again

I see how the man tries to fasten his pants

I see his torn shirt

I see him moving as if he’s forever of dust

an eddy a lightfooted jogtrot

he lifts his hand as if he’s greeting an idiocy

his feet spark the road

he arrows for the red grass horizons

not once does he look back